A Ballistic Monte Carlo Approximation of π

Abstract: We compute a Monte Carlo approximation of {\pi} using importance sampling with shots coming out of a Mossberg 500 pump-action shotgun as the proposal distribution. An approximated value of 3.131 is obtained, corresponding to a 0.33% error on the exact value of {\pi}. To our knowledge, this represents the first attempt at estimating {\pi} using such method, thus opening up new perspectives towards computing mathematical constants using everyday tools.